At some point in our lives we’ve failed. We’ve sinned against God, hurt someone else, made a poor decision or handled things in ways that were outside of God’s design. And my guess is that it’s not the last time for most of us. So what do we do in the wake of a failure?

On Sunday, August 3rd, we talked about Joshua chapter 8 which is the chapter which follows the “failure” at Ai and the sin of Achan. As we discussed the chapter we were able to see some things that the Israelites learned that when placed up against our own lives, gives us some great insight on what to do in the shadow of a failure.

It was really powerful as I looked at the story in Joshua 8 and thought about many of my past failures. We talked through 4 actions that I personally found really helpful in processing through the next steps when you realized you failed. So I thought it might be good to briefly recap those 4 actions so we could all have them and you may want to extract them and put them somewhere you can find them for your next “failure”.

1. 1.Deal with the failure.      -- there’s a tendency when we fail to feel really bad and I guess that’s a normal thing, but what often happens is we never actually get around to dealing with the failure. We may need to apologize, take ownership. Maybe we need to analyze what got us to that point and make intentional choices for the future (which is action step 3). Whatever it is we need to confess to God our failure (own up to it) and then repent which means turn around, change our minds, head in a different direction. It’s not so much about a feeling as it is an action we take.                              ...
   

2. 2.Don’t be hindered by discouragement   --  Yes we will be discouraged when we know we messed up, but we can’t let that discouragement lead to additional failure. If we are sulking we are not active in pursuing God. Yes we need to mourn our failure and loss - but then we need to get up and get about the right kinds of things. Peter is John 21 was told by Jesus, ‘feed my lambs” -- this was in the wake of Peter’s denial -- Jesus was saying, I’ve got a job for you, Peter - don’t be hindered by discouragement.
   

3. 3.Develop intentional plans  -- We need to be intentional about the right kinds of things. We need to replace the negative behaviors or choices with positive ones. We need to look to God’s Word and move in his direction.
   

4. 4.Depend on God   ---- This is the critical piece to the whole process. We must become people who are dependent fully on God. How many of us tend to try and manage our own lives and then ask God to bless them. We must lean in on God and we must spend serious time in His Word, the Bible. We must learn that prayer is not something we just do, but the very air we breathe. We can come to place of taking God at His Word and living in light of His leading, His provision and for His glory.
   

I hope these 4 actions are helpful for your journey. For the story behind these actions and a whole lot more insights, check out the sermon page and download or listen live to the sermon: “Failure’s Finest Day”.